The United States came in at 5 inches; Australia came in at 5.2 inches. At the top of the list were the Congo, whose men boasted an average of 7.1 inches. Closely following them were Ecuadorians at 7.0 inches, Ghanaians at 6.8 inches;and Colombians at 6.7 inches.
In Europe, Italians were at the top of the list, with 6.2 inches. Next was Greece, at 5.8 inches and Germany at 5.7 inches. Britons measured in at 5.5 inches, beating out the French, who measured 5.3 inches. Rounding out the list were North and South Korea, who both measure, on average, 3.8 inches.
It was written in 1853 by his great-great grandmother who was called Daniels and was a local herbalist in Llanelli, South Wales.
Her brother-in-law left the Welsh town at about the same time to move to Lynchburg Tennessee where the Jack Daniel's distillery was opened three years later.
And the Jack Daniel's website states the founder of the distillery was from Wales.
In Brazil, a new regulation requires drivers to add radio ID tags to their car windshields, which broadcast "vehicle year or fabrication, make, model, combustible, engine power and license plate number." This will be read by checkpoints throughout the country, and centrally processed and retained, in a system called Siniav. The administration claims that this system will be "confidential and secure" because its contractors will sign confidentiality agreements.
Not once in any Star Wars movie does someone pick up a book or newspaper, magazine, literary journal, or chapbook handmade by an aspiring Jawa poet. If something is read by someone in Star Wars, it’s almost certainly off of a screen (and even then, maybe being translated by a droid), and it’s definitely not for entertainment purposes. As early as the 1990s-era expanded Star Wars books and comic books, we’re introduced to ancient Jedi “texts” called holocrons, which are basically talking holographic video recordings. Just how long has the Star Wars universe been reliant on fancy technology to transfer information as opposed to the written word? Is it possible that a good number of people in Star Wars are completely illiterate?
The U.S. government paid a Chicago consultant hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on diversity training workshops that, according to one watchdog, included an exercise in which employees were told to chant "our forefathers were illegal immigrants."
Rebel Pundit caught up with supporters of the President at an Obama for America rally in Madison, WI on Thursday. When asked if it was "fair" that the President was unable to use a teleprompter during the debates, overwhelmingly the supporters said "no". Watch the video at Breitbart.
Reason: Since 2009, Skenazy has been waging a non-stop battle against
helicopter parents, nanny-state nuisances, and a media consumed by
scare stories about everything from child abduction to food
additives to sports injuries. The result is what Skenazy calls
"'worst-first thinking,' which is coming up with the worst thing
that could possibly happen and then proceeding as if it's
likely to happen."
Government
officials sometimes describe a kind of Hieronymus Bosch landscape when warning
of the possibility of a cyber attack on the electric grid. Imagine, if you
will, that the United States is blindsided by an epic hack that interrupts
power for much of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic for more than a week, switching
off the lights, traffic signals, computers, water pumps, and air conditioners
in millions of homes, businesses, and government offices. Americans swelter in
the dark. Chaos reigns!
Bottom line: The U.S. labor market remains in a deep depression with
virtually no recovery since the official end of the Great Recession. But
the Long Recession continues unabated.
Millions of Americans watched the first presidential debate between
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, but perhaps none with the intensity of Jim Gossett and Maxwell Price.
The two men just happen to make their living impersonating the two
candidates and a win on either side could mean four years of an income
estimated to be higher than the $450,000 salary Obama makes being the
leader of the free world.
At The Examiner, via Instapundit. This doesn't sound like much to me, because it's the same old stuff his campaign did in 2008, but I guess we'll see.
President Obama's reelection campaign, rattled
by his Wednesday night debate performance, could be in for even worse
news. According to knowledgeable sources, a national magazine and a
national web site are preparing a blockbuster donor scandal story.
Sources told Secrets that the Obama
campaign has been trying to block the story. But a key source said it
plans to publish the story Friday or, more likely, Monday.
According to the sources, a taxpayer watchdog
group conducted a nine-month investigation into presidential and
congressional fundraising and has uncovered thousands of cases of credit
card solicitations and donations to Obama and Capitol Hill, allegedly
from unsecure accounts, and many from overseas. That might be a
violation of federal election laws.
The Obama campaign has received hundreds of
millions in small dollar donations, many via credit card donations
through their website. On Thursday, the campaign announced a record
September donor haul of $150 million. At the end of the 2008
presidential campaign, the Obama-Biden effort was hit with a similar
scandal. At the time, the Washington Post reported that the Obama
campaign let donors use "largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that
could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is
legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity."
Gresham's law is an economic principle that states: "When a government compulsorily overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation."It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", but is more accurately stated: "Bad money drives out good if their exchange rate is set by law."
In making his case for re-election in the face of historically high
unemployment and sluggish growth, President Obama has a simple and
straightforward argument.
Things were terrible when I arrived, he says, thanks to Bush-era
policies of tax cuts and deregulation. We stopped the decline, but the
ditch was so deep that it will take time to get out. Still, we are
making progress, even if it isn't as fast as everyone would like.
So the last thing we want to do is return to the failed Bush policies that, he says, drove us into the ditch.
That
argument appears to be working. More people continue to blame Bush than
Obama for the current poor state of affairs, and some surveys show that
consumer confidence has recently increased.
But each part of Obama's argument is based on claims that are not accurate.
DENVER—Following last night’s nationally televised presidential debate, President Barack Obama’s
11-year-old daughter Sasha reportedly asked her father why he was
“acting like such a goddamned pussy up there.” “Daddy, how come you were
being such a little bitch?” asked the sixth-grader, who told the
president she was “genuinely worried” that maybe somebody had “cut
Daddy’s balls off” right before he took the stage. “What happened, Dad?
Were you on your period or something? Maybe the next time you’re in
front of the entire country for an hour and a half you should try not
letting another man spank you on the ass like that.” Sources added that
Obama’s youngest daughter then offered to help the president go “look
for [his] dick, because apparently it’s gone missing.
A
group of scientists from the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) are
advising the government via the Japan Atomic Energy Company (JAEC) to
completely overhaul its nuclear waste disposal plan. Currently, the
government plans to bury spent nuclear fuel 300 meters below ground,
where it will need to stay for tens of thousands of years until it is no longer radioactive.
The SCJ group said that because Japan is so prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity, there’s no guarantee of safety for future generations.
I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against.
- Damon Runyon ("A Nice Price," Collier's, 8 September 1934)
I always claim the mission workers come out too early to catch any sinners on this part of Broadway. At such an hour the sinners are still in bed resting up from their sinning of the night before, so they will be in good shape for more sinning a little later on.
- Runyon ("The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown," Colliers, 28 January 1933)
"My boy," he says, "always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you."
- Runyon ("A Very Honorable Guy," Cosmopolitan, August, 1929)
One of these days ... a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.
- Runyon (unsourced) (from the script of the 1955 movie version of Guys and Dolls)
The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.*
- Runyon (attributed)
Today is the 128th anniversary of the birth of American journalist and short-story writer (Alfred) Damon Runyon (1884-1946) in Manhattan, Kansas. Runyon ran away from home - by then in Pueblo, Colorado - to serve in the Spanish-American War and later became a war correspondent, columnist, and feature-writer for the Hearst syndicate. Called "the prose laureate of the semi-literate," he wrote short stories about the gamblers, bookies, gangsters, and chorus girls of New York City, later collected in Guys and Dolls (1931), on which the famous Broadway musical is based. Shortly before his death, he wrote to his friends,
"You can keep the things of bronze and stone, and give me one man to remember me just once a year."
* N.B. The reference here is to Ecclesiastes 9:11:
"The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong... but time and chance happeneth to them all."
The opening number (Fugue for Tinhorns) of the 1955 film version of Guys and Dolls featuring the inimitable Stubby Kaye as Nicely-Nicely:
Damon Runyon:
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If
you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the
comments.
Comments and lots of links at HotAir. Ahmadinejad’s been reduced to begging Iranians at press conferences not to convert their currency, which has lost four-fifths of its value this year, to something more stable. The chart below is for the last 70 days:
Going over the fiscal cliff would hit the fragile U.S. economy with about $800 billion of tax increases (mostly) and spending cuts in calendar 2013, or about 5% of GDP.
At least one document found amid the clutter indicates that Americans
at the mission were discussing the possibility of an attack in early
September, just two days before the assault took place. The
document is a memorandum dated Sept. 9 from the U.S. mission’s security
office to the 17th February Martyrs Brigade, the
Libyan-government-sanctioned militia that was guarding the compound,
making plans for a “quick reaction force,” or QRF, that would provide
security…
Applying the facts to the Model Penal Code and Common Law, Han was
justified in shooting first and killing Greedo. Without a doubt, having a
blaster pointed directly at Han put his life in danger. Additionally,
Greedo’s statement “That’s the idea. I’ve been looking forward to this
for a long time,” communicated Greedo’s intent to kill Han. Shooting
first was the only away to prevent Greedo from using deadly force
himself.
As for the retreat issue, Han was already at gunpoint and cornered in
the booth when Han shot Greedo. It is unlikely Han could have retreated
with his back to the wall and in a seated position. Shooting his way
out appeared to be his only option.
Finally, reasonable belief: Han was in Mos Eisley Spaceport,
a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Second, Greedo had his weapon
pointed at Han the entire time, with Han cornered in a booth. This
should be sufficient to show the reasonableness of the threat to Han’s
life.
More than half of physicians say they’ll vote for Mitt Romney come
November 6th compared to just 36 percent for Obama, according to a recent survey by medical staffing firm Jackson and Cokey.
In fact, 15 percent of survey respondents said they’ll be switching to
the Republican camp this election, with most citing the Affordable Care
Act as the reason.
The majority of the 3,660 doctors polled in
the survey said they also are in favor of repealing and replacing
Obama’s signature piece of legislation because it failed to address tort
reform, an issue relating regulations surrounding malpractice lawsuits.
Multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the (House Oversight and Government Reform) Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi,”
Issa and Chaffetz added. “The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”
The guidance also said the federal government would cover severance costs that are mandated under a federal layoff notices law.
The decision by Lockheed means tens of thousands won’t get layoff
notices days before Election Day, which might have cast a crucial blow
against President Obama’s reelection chances.
Republicans argue that last week’s guidance was a politically
motivated effort by the administration to protect Obama ahead of the
election.
And from Doug Powers at Malkin: What’s not being answered is this: The Obama administration is arguing that the WARN Act isn’t applicable
in cases involving sequestration. If that’s true, why are they putting
taxpayers on the hook to cover costs the WARN Act mandates if that law
doesn’t apply to this situation?
He spent 36 minutes at the pulpit telling a mostly black audience
that the U.S. government doesn’t like them because they’re black.
As the speech continues, Obama makes repeated and all-but-explicit appeals to racial solidarity, referring to “our” people and “our neighborhoods,” as distinct from the white majority.
Obama’s plan makes tax credits available to people who
get health insurance from exchanges set up by state
governments. If states don’t establish those exchanges, the
federal government will do so for them. The federal
exchanges, however, don’t come with tax credits: The law
authorizes credits only for people who get insurance from
state-established exchanges. And that creates some problems
the administration didn’t foresee, and now hopes to wish
away.
Many states are determined in
their opposition, and few of them have set up exchanges. If
they don’t do so, the tax credits don’t go into effect and
the federally established exchanges won’t work: People
won’t be able to afford the insurance available on them
without the subsidy.
States have another incentive to refrain from setting
up exchanges under the health-care law: It protects
companies and individuals in the state from tax increases.
The law introduces penalties of as much as $3,000 per
employee for firms that don’t provide insurance -- but only
if an employee is getting coverage with the help of a tax
credit. No state exchanges means no tax credits and thus no
employer penalties. The law also notoriously penalizes many
people for not buying insurance. In some cases, being
eligible for a tax credit and still not buying insurance
subjects you to the penalty. So, again, no state exchange
means no tax credit and thus fewer people hit by the
penalty.
Everything from the setting (Madison County, Illinois) to the falsely
alerting drug dog, the bad cop, the illegal traffic stop, the illegal
search, the forfeiture corridor, it was all in there. They even threw in
a little twist about recording cops in Illinois. You can watch the entire episode here, but The Agitator has a clip of the scene with the stop at the above link.
None of the above are a result of Obama Administration policies.
• Instead, the vagaries of natural climate variability have led to a (temporary) slowdown of the rise in both global average temperature and global average sea level.
Technically, Alvin was guilty of breaking the laws in question, even
though the laws are totally ridiculous and unjust. Luckily this jury
was informed about the process of jury nullification, and their legal
right to rule in favor of the accused for breaking unjust laws.
For decades, champions of the drug war have trumpeted the dire
risks of marijuana. But millions of Americans have used and even
enjoyed it -- nearly 100 million, in fact. Most of them have gone
on to lead responsible, well-adjusted lives.
If anything related to pot would have kept them from being
elected to office, it would be the laws against it. An arrest or a
conviction could derail a political career before it even got
started. Yet these presidents went on putting people in jail for something they got away with.
But the same things are true of alcohol, a drug that inflicts
far more damage to users and the rest of us than marijuana could
ever do. We accept those risks as the price of personal freedom --
while focusing law enforcement on combating abuse, not use. A
similar respect for individual prerogative ought to govern in the
realm of cannabis.
Under Mrs. Jackson, the EPA has become less a regulator following the
law and more an ideological vanguard that will push its
limits-to-growth agenda as long and as far as the courts and Congress
allow. Watch out in a second Obama term.
“Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported
firearms (that were not mentioned in [the U.S.] Congress’ investigation) that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during
Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites
related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre,” the
Univision report reads.
Univision also said that it was Phoenix ATF office leader Bill Newell
who ultimately concluded that “the only way to track the guns was to
wait for weapons to be recovered in crime scenes in Mexico.”
That charge, if true, would mean the Obama administration decided to
allow cartel operatives to kill and injure people with the weapons it
gave them, and to recover the guns only after criminals ditched them at
brutal — often deadly — crime scenes.
Univision also found additional details about other gunwalking operations the Obama administration undertook.
“Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.”
Citing a Mexican Army document it obtained and published, Univision reported that “[t]hree of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).”
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If
you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the
comments.
